Canada Day Bomb Plot Suspects Unlikely To Enter Pleas

CBC

CP

The two Surrey people accused of plotting to bomb the legislature on Canada Day are expected to appear in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver this morning.

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity, making or possessing an explosive device, conspiracy to place an explosive device with the intent to cause death or injury and conspiracy to murder persons unknown.

The pair made a brief appearance in Surrey provincial court yesterday morning, where charges were stayed in favour of a direct indictment in B.C. Supreme Court.

Nuttall’s defence lawyer Tom Morino says he expects the Crown's disclosure to include thousands of pages of documents, so he'll apply to have the case put over for several months to give him time to review the documents.

Speaking outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Morino said there is little incentive for Nuttall or Korody to enter a plea in a terrorism case when the charges carry a mandatory life sentence.

Morino also alleged U.S. police forces were involved in the investigation and said the case has elements of entrapment.

Improvised explosives

Nuttall, 38, and Korody, who is 28 or 29, are alleged to have turned ordinary pressure cookers into improvised explosive devices filled with rusted nails, nuts, bolts and washers.

Police have claimed the two were inspired by “al-Qaeda ideology,” but say there’s no evidence the two were acting “at the direction of a terror group.”

But friends have expressed doubt the couple could have pulled off such a plot on their own.

Friends and neighbours describe the pair as exhibiting increasingly odd behaviour after converting to Islam about six months ago.

One friend told CBC News the pair was recently kicked out of a Surrey mosque, while a neighbour said she overheard Nuttall having a loud conversation on his cellphone in which he mentioned jihad.